* * * * *
"As she waited for the call to go through, Celia explained to me some background on General Phillips."
"He had been born and raised at Widener University, Jay. Back when it was still known as the Pennsylvania Military College. His Quaker father had taught Barton-Wright judo, there! A style that young Phillips passed on to U.S. Army Rangers, in London, during World War II. And, to the teenage students of Indiana's Culver Military Academy, afterward."
"Celia first met him in the early Seventies, when she was undergoing her bodyguard training for that top-secret agency I mentioned earlier. He and her sensei put on a little exhibition match for herself and the other trainees. And she was so dumb-founded by his formidability, for a man of his then-age (mid-fifties), that she just had to walk up to him...and ask for his autograph."
"The two became regular pen-pals, after that. With him serving as the grandfather she'd never known. And with her reminding him of the feisty daughter he'd lost in Vietnam during the First Tet Offensive (she was serving as a M*A*S*H nurse near the DMZ when the fighting broke out)."
"Anyway, he finally came on the line. And she explained our situation to him. There was a pause while Celia listened to his reply."
" Then she said: 'Just arrange for someone to bring us in, Bob. I can tell you what to look for...and, more importantly, whom!' "
"There was another pause. Followed by..."
" 'He's not Regular Army or National Guard, is he? We need someone who'll be off their radar.' "
"Yet another pause. Though much briefer than the first."
" 'Retired Reserve? Great! Where and when?' "
"It was at this point she jotted something down on the notepad that came with each motel room's phone."
" 'We'll be there in an hour. Thanks, Bob.' "
"With that, she hung up and told me that we would be meeting a Vietnam veteran chopper pilot, named Reardon, who now flew paramedical helicopters for one of Chicago's biggest hospitals."
" 'He'll meet us on the Indiana side of the state line, and fly us to the Union Cities area to meet with Bob. All we have to do is hope Gina finally gets here with the food, so that we can at least _wolf down_ a long-overdue supper.' "
"That's when it happened, Jay."
" 'Attention, Cecilia Finster! This is the Illinois State Police! We have the motel surrounded. Come out of your room, with your hands behind your head, immediately! Otherwise, we will open fire.' "
"I looked at Celia with shock: 'I thought you said...!' "
"But, she shushed the rest of my statement, claiming she needed to concentrate. Whereupon, she assumed a yoga lotus position and closed her eyes."
"For the first ten seconds, nothing happened. Then, I noticed something strange happening. She was beginning to perspire from her forehead. While her breathing was becoming almost...well, 'asthmatic' is the best way I can put it, Jay."
"Before I could summon the courage to ask her what was wrong, I heard excited shouting from outside."
" 'Hey, Cap'n! Look!!' "
" 'The drones! How on Earth...?' "
" 'Scatter! Scatter! ' "
"Immediately, I started getting a vision in my head. A vision of all those state policemen being struck by beams of white light...and instantly shrinking! Some, on foot. Others, as a result of trying to hide in their cars!"
"I also saw a great many of them get crushed to bloody pulps by a Ford Escape that suddenly barreled into the motel parking lot at, like, fifty miles an hour. All before screeching to an ear-splitting halt in a perfect one hundred eighty degree turn!"
"That's when the vision abruptly ceased. The result of Celia suddenly snapping me out of her trance and snatching me up off the dresser."
"She dashed out of the motel room like bats out of Hades, itself, were chasing us! Me, in her left hand, and her Centennial Colt .45 in the other. And, as she ran toward the Ford Escape, I could hear the scrunching of metal and soprano-sounding screams of agony coming from somewhere below her boot-clad feet."
"The next thing I know, she was practically throwing herself into the shotgun seat, yelling: "Drive-drive-drive! NOW!' "
tbc
Giantess World
